So pre-occupied was I over the anger I felt at how Borys treated Sofia that I didn’t realize why Sofia was drawing her own blood until she once again kissed me, giving me the slightest taste of her blood through the cut on her lips.

“Sofia…” I gasped, pulling my lips away from her.

“I won’t lose you,” she said determinedly. She rose to her feet and took a dagger from the guard’s corpse. She then cut her wrist open and steadied my head with one hand before letting her own blood drip over my mouth. I tried to turn away, but found myself unable to.

Having already tasted her blood, I lost the battle I was trying to fight. I bit into her already open wrist and began to drink deep. The moment her blood entered my system, it was pure ecstasy. I could immediately feel my entire body coming back to life, the agony easing into a dull ache and finally into what felt like complete restoration. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Her blood wasn’t only the sweetest I’d ever tasted…it also seemed to have healing qualities the likes of which I’d never thought possible. I could feel my strength returning and the wounds on my body healing, but I knew that I had to keep my senses intact. I couldn’t lose myself in the bliss the taste of her blood was giving me. I knew I had to be aware of when I had to stop. Her body could only give me a certain amount of blood after all. I had to be careful not to drain her.

When I pulled my mouth away from her, she looked deathly pale. I swallowed hard, panic overtaking me. “Sofia, are you alright? Did I…”

She nodded weakly. “I’m alright. Don’t worry about me.” She looked far from alright, however, and I knew it.

Adrenaline rushed through my entire body, giving me the strength I needed to pull away from my restraints. Sofia looked with shock as the chains broke. She knew I was strong, but she’d never actually seen me in full combat. She’d never seen me do anything beyond ripping out a heart or two. I looked beyond her surprise, however, and proceeded to check on her. Have I gone too far?

She gripped my arm, which was healing pretty quickly, and looked me in the eye. “I told you, I’m okay, Derek. Get me out of here.”

I knew that we had to take advantage of Borys’ absent-minded stupidity. I rose to my feet and checked the guard for anything I could use. He didn’t have much on him, except the clothes on his back. Considering how I was stripped down to my underwear before Borys and Lucas had their way with me, I needed the clothes. I pulled his trousers off and to my relief, they were roughly my size. I put them on and looked at his shirt. I wrinkled my nose at the blood that stained it and decided that it was better off left on the guard. At this point, Sofia was sitting on the ground, her back leaned against the wall, still looking pale and slightly nauseous.

I frowned at the outfit she was wearing.

When Borys brought her in and I first laid eyes on her, the first thing I noticed was how beautiful her face looked. After that, I noticed the pendant on her neck and remembered my nightmare. I quickly tore my eyes away from the necklace, refusing to accept that she could be gone forever. That’s when I noticed the dress. It had Borys written all over it. It was very similar to the outfit I found Vivienne in when I took her away from Borys. I hated the humiliation both Sofia and my sister had gone through in Borys’ hands.

Sofia noticed that I was staring at her dress in disdain and wrapped her arms around herself to cover her cleavage. “I had no choice.” I hated that he put her in a position like this—where she felt she had to explain to me why she was wearing a dress so revealing. I found myself wishing that I had a shirt to pull off my body and hand over to her.

She shifted her focus to my bare torso. “How could you have healed so fast? When you were whipped at The Shade, it took you…”

“It’s a mystery to me. Maybe there really is something about your blood.” The fact that I’d just tasted her blood hit me once again and I had to change the subject before I could mull over the consequences that came with that.

“Can you stand?” I asked her.

She answered my question with a nod before reaching a hand out toward me so that I could help. I pulled her to a standing position, checking if she really was strong enough to support herself. When I was sure that she was steady, I gently pecked her on the lips before assuring her, “We’ll get you something to cover up with as soon as we can. Right now, we have to get out of here.”

“Do I look that awful?” she asked.

“No, Sofia. It’s the exact opposite. You look absolutely enticing. Any vampire who lays eyes on you in that outfit is bound to want you.” I then heaved a sigh in an attempt to divert my thoughts. “How on earth do we get past all seven levels?”

“Maybe Ben got us some help…” she said hopefully, looking at the dust on the floor caused by the small quake we had just experienced.

I swallowed hard. If he did, he most likely called the hunters. That won’t go well for me. I shifted my focus to the door. I walked toward it and used my whole weight to push it open. I broke through it more easily than I expected. I then walked out to check the hall for any guards. I frowned when I realized that it was empty. Something’s not right.

We went through the corridors without encountering a single guard. We finally reached the center of level seven where a control room was located. Surveillance monitors showed what was going on in other levels. Ben had indeed called the hunters. The monitors showed that The Oasis—specifically levels one to four were under full-blown attack. The sun was shining right through level one, vampires burning at the glare. It was clear what the hunters did in order to get in. They simply blew the top level of The Oasis away. I wondered if it was safer for us to just stay at level seven and wait for all the killing to be over, but Sofia stepped up and brushed her fingers over one of the monitors, her eyes wide with surprise.

“What is it?” I asked.

She just stared at the monitor for a couple of seconds before responding. “It’s my father.” Her eyes moistened. She looked at me even as I looked at the image she was referring to. She then stated her next words more to herself than to me. “My father’s a hunter.”

CHAPTER 53: SOFIA

The moment the circular glass elevator stopped at level four, I saw my father rising up to his feet as he pulled a wooden stake from a vampire’s chest. At the sight of me, his eyes widened.

More questions than I could make sense of flashed through my mind at the sight of him. My mother was a vampire and my father was a hunter. It felt like my entire life had been a lie. However, I knew that I wasn’t about to get any answers, because this was no time for teary-eyed reunions. War was breaking out all around us.

As I stepped out of the elevator, I realized that my father had just begun to take note of the dress I was wearing and the blood on my wrists. He then saw Derek stepping out of the elevator right behind me. My heart stopped when I realized what it looked like.

“Dad, no!” I screamed, but he was already pulling out a gun and aiming it at Derek. I immediately acted out of instinct and used myself to cover Derek. I was about to tell Aiden—who was running toward me—that if he ever hurt Derek, I’d never be able to forgive him, but before I could make sense of what was going on, Derek was speeding forward.

I was sure that he was about to attack my father, but then he ripped the heart of a vampire about to pounce on Aiden instead.

My father twisted around in surprise. I moved forward and held hands with Derek as I looked my father in the eye. “Let the hunters know that no one is to lay a hand on Derek Novak.”

A muscle in my father’s jaw twitched as he gave me a disapproving look. “Why are you dressed that way and who drank your blood?”

“Borys Maslen had me dressed this way, because he intends to marry me. He’s also had a drink of my blood. Derek came here to rescue me,” I explained, conveniently leaving out the part when I let Derek drink my blood.

My father glared at Derek. “Get my daughter out of here.”

I sighed with relief as I heard him spout out orders on the hunters’ communications system that Derek was not to be harmed.

Secure that the hunters wouldn’t hurt Derek and that our only problem would be encounters with the Maslens, Derek’s grip on my hand tightened. “Where’s your room?”

The goal was to reach my chambers and hopefully hide out there until everything had blown over. I was relieved that Derek suggested we go there, because I wanted to retrieve the diamond necklace he gave me. I knew how important it was to him and it had also become extremely valuable to me because of what it symbolized. We weaved past the halls, Derek having to take down a couple of vampires before we reached my quarters. I entered the room and rummaged through the drawers for the necklace. The moment I found it, I pulled off the necklace given to me by Borys and threw it on the ground. I then turned to face Derek and found myself surprised when I saw the alarm on his handsome face.

“We’re not safe here. I didn’t realize how close your room was to the Maslen family’s chambers. Come! Hurry!”

He gave me no time to voice out my confusion; he just grabbed me by the waist and sped out of the room. He stopped when we were already at the main hall, right by the circular elevator, where the heat of the battle was going on. At this point, a hunter—one who either didn’t hear, or chose to ignore, my father’s instructions not to harm Derek—lunged toward him with a stake. Derek pushed me to one corner away from the chaos going on around us and I heard the hunter’s neck snap.

I managed to tear my eyes away from the sight of Derek killing another person and that’s when I got a full picture of what was going on around me.

My blood was pounding within me. A surge of horror rushed through my body as I scoped my surroundings. Gunshots were being fired all over the place. A fiery bullet hit a vampire about seven feet away from me, who screamed in agony as he burst into flames. He was only one among the many vampires present in those tombs—one among many dying excruciating deaths by those fatal gunshots. A few lucky ones were killed with stakes being driven through their hearts, but most were shot with the hunters’ bullets, uniquely engineered to mete out death on the vampires.